The Arsenal Anniversary Files
Today’s headline anniversaries come from 1996 and 2005.
Latest article published by the Arsenal History Society
Arsenal in March 1925: The run of consecutive defeats ends, but recovery is slight
Below are the Arsenal (and for historical context, occasionally one or two non-Arsenal) anniversaries for today taken from the complete files of over 6000 Arsenal anniversaries which appear on the Arsenal History Society website. An index to the monthly Anniversary files can be found in the right column of this site under “Pages”
The current historical series on this site is Henry Norris at the Arsenal. An index of all our main series can be found on the home page.
14 August 1894: Jack Butler born in Ceylon; he played 267 games for Arsenal. He was the first Woolwich Arsenal player who was born outside of the British Isles.
14 August 1963: Bob Wilson’s first friendly game. Bob Wilson went to Loughborough College (now university) to train as a teacher. He didn’t play his first league game until October.
14 August 1971: After the Double everyone expected more of the same, and got it with an opening match of Arsenal 3 Chelsea 0. Unfortunately two wins were followed by three consecutive defeats.
14 August 1973: The second of a two game Norwegian tour: Frigg 1 Arsenal 0. This was followed by a defeat against Wolverhampton. It was not the best of pre-seasons.
14 August 1980: George Wood signed from Everton as understudy to Jennings. He was reported to have scored while playing in goal for East Stirlingshire v Queen of the South on 9 January 1971 kicking the ball out of his area.
14 August 1982: Lee Chapman’s first game, in a friendly. He was top scorer with Stoke, but never made it at Arsenal, playing in the first eight matches of the season before being replaced after a sequence in which Arsenal won two, drew two and had four defeats
14 August 1991: Steve Morrow went on loan to Watford and the following day Alan Miller went on loan to WBA, followed by Andy Cole on loan to Fulham on 5 September.
14 August 1993: A 0-3 home defeat to Coventry in the opening game of the season was followed by four consecutive wins and just two more defeats in the next 16 league games.
14 August 1996. The first Arsène Wenger signings, Remi Garde (on a free transfer) and Patrick Vieira (£3.5m) joined Arsenal. Wenger was still in Japan ending his contract and both players arrived carrying injuries.
14 August 1999: Last game for Luis Boa Morte (v Sunderland) before moving on to Southampton. He had played 25 league games for Arsenal across two seasons and went on to play 14 for Southampton.
14 August 2003: Igors Stepanovs transferred to Beveren on a one year loan. He played 21 times in Belgium before moving on to Grasshoppers where he played 50 games in two seasons.
14 August 2005: Start of the final season at Highbury with a game against Newcastle. A 2-0 victory against a parked bus defence which Henry and Van Persie breached in the last 10 minutes. Arsenal’s new stadium opened one year later and on time – unlike some we could mention.
14 August 2008: Middlesbrough made a bid for Justin Hoyte. He was transferred two days later for £3m having played 34 league games for Arsenal and 27 while on loan at Sunderland.
14 August 2010: Arsène Wenger signed a contract extension until June 2014. Despite this being the era of Arsenal Austerity he kept the club in the top four and ready for a return to trophies with the FA Cup wins in 2014 and 2015.
14 August 2016: Arsenal lost the opening match of the season 3-4 to Liverpool. Three players including Koscielny were out because of prolonged international duty while Mertesacker and Gabriel were injured leaving Arsenal with a makeshift defence.
